a clown car full of millionaires: the 2016 presidential primary thread

Mr. Trump has not filed financial disclosure documents, and right now, even his supporters are not positive that he has $100 million for a campaign. Using his own $100 million would mean he could not accept federal matching funds and would not have to rely on financing from special interest groups, supporters say.

''Does he really have that money? I don't know,'' said Rick McCluhan, chairman of the Reform Party in Minnesota. On the other hand, Mr. Trump does have ''charisma and chutzpah,'' Mr. McCluhan said, as well as the ability to attract attention.

Trump dropped out a month later

this political campaign was funded on a major loan from goldman sachs using only 'chutzpah' as collateral

Mr. Trump's wealth helps qualify him for higher office. ''Politicians are on the take and looking for job security,'' he writes. ''Not me.''

True, running on the anti-populist ticket - I'm filthy rich, vote for me - does take chutzpah.

no rich person ever wanted more money

from the guardian, describing walker:

Lacking experience abroad, Walker has billed his local work as preparing him for global leadership. At this year’s Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, the governor asserted that his fight with public-sector unions had helped prepare him to fight “Islamic terrorists”.

“I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists does not wash up on American soil,” Walker said. “We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect American soil but do not, do not, take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world. We need a leader with that kind of confidence.

“If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”

Walker later walked back the statement.

“Let me be perfectly clear: I’m just pointing out the closest thing I have to handling this difficult situation is the 100,000 protesters I had to deal with,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal.

...For many Wisconsinites and sympathetic onlookers, the step represented a betrayal of workers carrying out core government functions. Democratic legislators fled to Illinois to deny a quorum. Protesters occupied the capitol.

“The capitol grew so packed with human bodies, the staff who worked there physically could not move around the building,” Walker wrote in Unintimidated, a 2013 memoir. “The smell, as soon as you walked into the building, was overpowering.”

Hmmm. I wonder which side of that is stupider: the Palin-esque claim that dealing with union contracts demonstrates his ability to handle ISIS, or the implicit comparison of American citizens expressing their opinions to the supporters of ISIS.

lol

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/television/article/Letterman-un-retires-to-deliver-Top-Ten-List-6380393.php

I love that Trump's audacity has summoned comics like Letterman & Berkeley Breathed back to active duty

What are the odds Trump gets murdered by the Sinaloa Cartel before he can drop out of the race?

I genuinely wonder which of these candidates actually want to be President (as opposed to knowing that they have no chance and using their campaign as a springboard for some other ambition). I mean, I get the sense that Hillary Clinton reeeeeally wants to be President but it's a variable thing with a lot of the other candidates. Like, if Trump accidentally became President through some grand cosmic accident, I can't see more than a day elapsing between his inauguration and his inevitable concession.

p sure Jeb, Rubio and Walker want to be prez

lol at the AFL-CIO's 6-word statement regarding Scott Walker's candidacy:

"Scott Walker is a national disgrace."

buncha union terrorists

the implicit comparison of American citizens expressing their opinions to the supporters of ISIS.

from what I can tell it's pretty much an explicit belief among conservatives that unions are organized crime, or at least it was. maybe now they've updated it to terrorism.

it's a crime these days to hope for a living wage

xps lol @ Trump twitter war with the Sinaloa

http://www.aflcio.org/Press-Room/Press-Releases/AFL-CIO-Statement-on-Scott-Walker-Announcement

“Let me be perfectly clear: I’m just pointing out the closest thing I have to handling this difficult situation is the 100,000 protesters I had to deal with,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal.

Talk about a gimme (especially for, say, a former Secretary of State): As he himself has said, the closest thing he has to dealing with international terrorists is some unhappy third-grade teachers in Wisconsin.

no, you have to understand, the smell

the smell of freedom

@HuntsmanAbby
Scott Walker walks out to chants, "we want Trump." Wow that is unbelievable.

We want pre-Trump

wait where did that happen

Scott Walker also walked out to "Life Is a Highway" (wrong Tom Cochrane song, obviously).

https://medium.com/organizer-sandbox/the-2016-u-s-presidential-candidates-logos-ranked-9ee41fa50964

Rand Paul's logo looks like a petrochemical company

Scott Walker also walked out to "Life Is a Highway" (wrong Tom Cochrane song, obviously)

Yeah, they should all walk out to "Lunatic Fringe."

Yakety Sax or gtfo

As I said on FB this morning, Trump's only "running for president" until the day financial disclosures are due, then he's gonna make some excuse and disappear back into his tower. Donald Trump would rather drop his pants and show you his cock and balls at the podium than reveal to the world what he's actually worth, in real dollars. My prediction:

― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Monday, July 13, 2015 11:53 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

eh the financial disclosure form is really not very revealing its designed to show conflicts as far as types of investments, the dollar values are expressed as ranges and he cld really just make up whatever values hes wants, no ones out there check comps for his building or w/e, he cld just overvalue his assets and everyones happy

examining Hil's "economic plan" for specifics:

http://gawker.com/hillary-clinton-tells-progressives-trust-me-trust-me-1717548816

http://mashable.com/2015/07/13/scott-walker-wisconsin-7-day-week/

Under the previous law, factory and retail employees were required to take a whole 24 hours off every seven days unless they got explicit permission from the state. Now, all employees have to do is specify in writing that they’re cool with working for a full week.

Republicans in the Badger state have been pushing for the new seven-day work week since 2014. State Senators Glenn Grothman and Mark Born, who proposed the seven-day work week legislation last year, told the Associated Press in 2014 that it was a win-win for workers and employers: workers could make an extra buck, and employers could increase production.

"It's ridiculous when people want to work extra hours why Democrats would stand in the way of that," Grothman told the Associated Press. "I don't know why some people want some people to remain poor."

wow fuck you Glenn Grothman

like the labor movement never happened

im sure working 7 days a week does wonders for your health.

I once worked two jobs for 22 days in a row -- averaged 10-14 hours a day -- and got so sick I couldn't stand up or talk.

And since neither job was technically full-time, no health benefits!

i can't believe you would want to destroy small businesses by forcing them to cover your health care

you know who else loved health benefits? Hitler

jfc

anyway, haven't read this, the venn diagram at the end makes 0 sense to me

http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/republicans-are-acting-like-democrats-democrats-are-acting-like-republicans/

and got so sick I couldn't stand up or talk.

you're no 19th-century man.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/donald-trump-campaign-ad-nazi-soldiers

The URL doesn't lie.

"An intern did it" - if I was Trump's campaign manager, I might be minded to do a lulz-sweep, to see who of these interns are committed to the... cause? and who are just waiting to see how much hilarity they can sneak in.

Of course, once you go down that road, you find yourself wondering - who would be Donald Trump's campaign manager, who would want that on their resume. Could it be... an intern?

Eh, I think some of yr serious professional hired-gun types would be amused and/or pleased to have that on their resume. "Yes, I worked on the Trump campaign, but I did it for a very large paycheck. Would you like to see a picture of the beach house I got with that money?"

What I absolutely would NOT understand is if they have volunteers or unpaid interns, who act out of True Belief in the Candidate. "I volunteered on the Trump campaign!" would probably be the saddest statement in the history of sadness.

I don't do campaign work, but I do work as a consultant, and my resume includes lots of clients whose views I don't necessarily endorse. If I were ever questioned on them, I would always have the option of saying that I needed to pay the rent and my kids needed to eat.

Think about what Anthony Hopkins said about Jaws: The Revenge: "I have never seen Jaws: The Revenge, but I have seen the house that Jaws built and it is terrific."

Shit I think I meant Michael Caine

Ah no, I was mostly amused at the idea of an all-intern staff. It would make more sense from a careerist point of view than many other candidates - his brand of late is based around rewarding gumption and stick-to-it-ive-ness. If his eye fell on you right, you could be the next Apprentice! Er, until NBC kicked him off.

xp oh I thought that was the joke!

Anyone else running today?

just scott walker

http://38.media.tumblr.com/bac78626b4572fd2639bbcee69b3d06f/tumblr_nrign7u71v1qdmmiqo1_500.gif

i keep reviving the wrong primary thread.

can you add chicken bawking to that